A systems engineer and technical fellow at the Boeing Co., Joan Wada has had an extensive engineering career in the defense industry. She has 17 awarded patents and was recognized as the Asian American Engineer of the Year in 2007 by the Chinese Institute of Engineering.

Alumni, family, faculty and friends of UC Irvine’s schools of engineering, information and computer sciences and physical sciences came together Friday night, March 2, in a sparkling celebration of accomplishment as 11 new members were inducted into their school’s Hall of Fame.

For Ahmed Zobi, it’s his mother. For Hugo Salas, a beloved grandmother. For Justin Stovner, a male relative who has endured 10 surgeries. For Dr. Derek Banyard, it’s his father and the largely African American patients whose limbs he’s had to amputate or who have died too young.

Joe King transferred to UC Irvine from a community college in Fresno. He graduated in 2014 with a double major in mechanical and aerospace engineering and now works for Scaled Composites, an aerospace and specialty composites development company offering design, build and test capabilities.

Hamid Moradkhani ’05 has received the Branford Price Millar Award at Portland State University (PSU) where he is a professor of civil and environmental engineering, director of the Remote Sensing and Water Resources Lab and fellow of the Institute for Sustainable Solutions.

The Samueli School of Engineering and the Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences recognized 11 distinguished alumni at the 2017 Hall of Fame Celebration held last month at the Marconi Automotive Museum in Tustin.

Ed Hernandez, an engineering teacher at Tustin High School, was named the 2015 California Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year by the Association of College and Technical Educators and the 2014 High Impact Teacher of the Year in STEM by Project Tomorrow, an Irvine-based organization that supports educational excellence in STEM.

Samueli School alumnus Salvatore Campione, who earned a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering in 2013, has been named the 2016 Outstanding Young Professional by the IEEE Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) honor society.